The Outsiders!

 The touring company of the Outsiders has come to Omaha before launching nationally next week. They call this a "try out" stay where the kinks and any other problems are dealt with before going national. You'd never know judging from this musical performance tonight.

Based on the S E Hinton novel and the 1983 movie, the story involves 1967 Tulsa where the city is divided by East, where the greasers live, and the West where the "soc's" or rich kids live. Whenever they catch the other on their side of town, fights ensue.

The main characters include Pony Boy (a fantastic Nolan White), his love struck kinda dumb brother Soda Pop (Corbin Drew Ross as a great straight man) and the oldest brother Darell (the glue of the play Travis Roy Rogers), Pony Boy's best friend Johnny Cade (Bonale Fambrini in a great understated role), the New York bred Dallas Winston (Tyler Jordan Wesley in another great performance) and Cherry Valance, the soc with a brain and a heart (a wonderful Emma Hearn).

The story is familiar. The greasers, the poor kids made fun of by the soc's, just want to be left alone to go to movies and malls on the west side but cannot because they get attacked if they are found. Johnny Cade is beaten to a pulp and seems to know his days are numbered. Pony Boy tries to keep him together while at the same time making an attempt to keep his brothers supportive. But Pony Boy is wracked with guilt over his parents' deaths he feels he could have prevented. The play involves this guilt turning to rage and the killing of the main soc, a brutal rich kid, by Johnny. The run from the law, the turning the kids into heroes saving children from a fire, resulting in the death of Johnny. There is no redemption here as in the opening song states, this is the way its always gonna be.

The music is good but there is a lot of copying from other musicals here. I heard Hamilton, Hadestown and Grease type music which does come together. The songs are good, the lyrics are great, and the stage presence is phenomenal. There is a scene of a rumble in a park, done in slow motion with rain pouring down, with bright lights signifying what's it like being knocked out. Its superb choreography, maybe the best I've seen in years. Another scene when the soc's try and drown Pony Boy, complete with sound effects and the sense of drowning onstage is also so great. 

But the truly great moment in the Tony Award winning musical is the goodbye song of Dallas Winston. Tyler Wesley knocks this moment out of the park. But it's ended and Pony Boy's narration takes over, denying Wesley of any applause. That was awkward but he got his due during the curtain call.

The first act is very good. The second act is great. A solid two hours of fun, sadness and wonder. This cast of young up and comers, many making their touring debuts, have no weak spots. They all act and sing like wily veterans. 

On the negative side. Not much, but when Pony Boy bleaches his hair blonde and they tell him he looks like Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry, sorry but as Max's Mom pointed out, he looks more like Beavis. Thats all the bad I got.

In conclusion, if you get the chance by all means attend this awesome musical. I expected not much and got more than I expected. That is the definition of a great experience.

Bravo! And stay gold Pony Boy.

Rewriting History By Pete Kegseth!

 Another week another whack job shoots off his mouth. December 19.1890 is not the finest hour of the United States Military when troops opened fire and killed 300 or so Lakota and buried them in a mass grave at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. If you've ever been there, you know the ghosts are there. It's an eerie place, much like The Little Bighorn. 19 soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for this "battle" of Wounded Knee. Throughout American history of the last 134 years this massacre is right up there with My Lai and Sandy Creek and the Haymarket Riots as far as disgraces go. 

But not anymore. Sec of Defense Pete Hegseth opened his yap and did the performance theater of talking with his hands and justifying this "battle" and the medals awarded for the "bravery" of the US Army. Right in line with this putrid administration, history is being re-written by a gang of white supremacists. Jan 6 was FBI, 2020 election "stollen", everything Trump says was not said, Kirk was "assassinated" by a leftist, the left are the violent ones, Israel is just defensing itself and now a genocidal massacre was a "battle". The cowards who initiated this event at Wounded Knee were "brave". Like hunting down fleeing women and children up to 3 miles away and killing them. You get a Medal of Honor and you get a Medal of Honor. Hegseth, a Christian nationalist bag of tattoos, fresh off a grueling stint as 3rd banana on a Fox weekend show, has assumed his role and begun justifying every shitty action he can find. American history is nothing but eagles and guns and conquering heroes. It's like these people live in the 1930s. Oh wait.

Of all the shit said during the last 8 months, THIS is the worst. And I KNOW it won't even be bottom justifying a massacre of women and children. Just wait till the Trail of Tears is rewritten as a nice jog in the park, The Civil War was northern aggression on a peaceful people, slavery was just full employment for blacks, slave ships were cruise ships, Vietnam was a noble victory, the invasion of Iraq was about WMD's, and Nixon was hounded out of office by Jimmy Kimmel.

Justifying a massacre as "brave", even for accused rapist (oh those pesky NDAs) and thrice married Hegseth. I assume he was sober as he gave his little talk about medals and bravery. Yeah man, it's all woke and shit to think killing nonwhites is bad. But the sight of white trash beating cops and shitting in waste backets, chanting "Hang Mike Pence", sing songy staking Nancy Pelosi, and acting like cocaine fueled monkeys was instigated not by a fat orange buffoon, but by the FBI. Ya know, the FBI under the rule of Donald Trump. 

Its Trumps America. Invasion of American cities, the beating of anyone not white by armed thugs posing as federal agents, disappearing American citizens for weeks at a time, renaming shit that doesn't matter (War department, Gulf of America), building $200 million ballrooms financed by bribes from corporations, and the embarrassment this regime brings upon Americans every single day is being met by a giant yawn by the majority. We are a docile people and it's time to stop that.

Or it's all going to be gone, 250 years destroyed in 8 fucking months.

Kimmel, Kirk and Kooks!

 

Well lets get started. Every week is a novel in itself but unfortunately, it's a novel based on real events that skews to the MAGA. 

Jimmy Kimmel, after being banned after threats from the latest MAGA thug, Brendan Carr (we can do dis da hard way or da easy way.( such a funny joke per J D Bowman) returned to the airwaves after Disney was bombarded with cancellations of their Disney Plus Marvel streaming service and their Hulu, the watch twice as many ads as regular network TV streaming service. Oh yeah and ESPN too. Disney did not suddenly become a courageous resistance standing up to Trump and Carr, but a corporation with ALL the money who wants to keep it. Kimmel kept hammering Trump and his thugs. There was no apology to the "offended" Kirkophiles, no financial bribe money paid to TPUSA, the college grifter organization started by Charlie Kirk, or a softening of Kimmel's attacks on Trump. Good for you Jimmy, you have the courage most of America lacks.

Some wayward 29-year-old white male, no hope seen for his future, took out his gun, laid on a roof across from an ICE camp in Dallas, and fired away at the building. He killed a detainee and wounded two other detainees. No ICE people were harmed in this shooting. The young white male then whacked himself cuz that's what "left wing radicals" do. The dust had barely settled before the usual suspects like Kristi Noem, Kash Patel and Donald Trump played the blame game. Though only detainees were harmed and the two critically wounded will be deported as soon as they can stagger onto a plane, this was an attack on ICE. The poor ICE thugs  agents are under attack. These poor ICE people are just family types trying to make a living "protecting" all of us from that guy over at Home Depot looking for a day job and of course raping your white wife. Patel even released a picture of a bullet with "Anti ICE" written in blue sharpie. This I take with a giant grain of salt since virtually nothing coming out of this dishonest regime is truth. 

Escalatorgate. Trump and Melania arrived at the United Nations and after their videographer hit the stop button, the escalator stopped and horror of horrors they both had to walk upstairs. Then during Trumps whacko speech, which featured all the greatest hits, his teleprompter went out. Forget that on the campaign trail Trump constantly pissed and moaned about his lousy mike, his teleprompter failing, lights being too bright like the whiny lil bitch he is, this was sabotage. Fox News and Newsmax sprang into action. This was some sort of attempt to kill Trump or make him look like a fool (spoiler he is a fool). Escalatorgate will be the Fox narrative all week. 

The Kirk "memorial service". A whole lot of crazy from the likes of Jack Posobiac, Stephen Miller, a bunch of charlatan preachers, and then eventually the King of Bullshit himself. Kirk's widow, a dry crier if I ever saw one, "forgave" her husband's murderer and called for peace. Whether that was true or not I don't know. Then came the creepy Uncle Trump. Hugging Erika Kirk like a trench coat wearing perv, Trump then launched into how much he hates his opponents (just another hilarious joke per Megyn Kelly). There were "hundreds of thousands" of attendees in a 63,000-seat stadium to honor the podcaster who has become the modern-day Jesus H Christ. Unfortunately, he did not rise after 3 days but one Jimmy Kimmel did. Just stop with the canonization of this loudmouth shit stirrer. I condemn his killing, but I also condemn his nonsense.

The indictment of James Comey. An indictment that should not even get out of arraignment. Since Trump openly told Pam Bondi, a modern-day mob lawyer, to start indicting people and that he's mad about MAGAts demanding action when nothing gets done. This stupid man later deleted his blatant call to arrest his opponents cuz it was supposed to be an email or a text or whatever. Nuremberg cannot come soon enough for these goons.

 

And finally, Oklahoma's own Superintendent of Public Indoctrination   Education, Ryan Walters has decided to move on from buying Trump Bibles and watching porn at work, to some phony organization that doesn't condemn porn at work. Walters famously bought $60 Trump bibles for all classrooms in Oklahoma schools (which also contains the Constitution but NOT amendments 11-27 because women's rights and banning slavery and civil rights and 18-year-olds voting and the 25th amendment are all "woke") and lastly advocated for a mandatory Charlie Kirk statue at every college campus, and a mandatory TPUSA chapter at all Oklahoma schools. Walters is as dumb as they come. Also, Walters is as phony as they come. Good riddance.

This is our 2025 country. Sheesh.

AJ Croce!

 On September 21, 1973, singer songwriter Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash while touring. Croce in his short life had so many hits it's hard to remember them all. His son, AJ, or Adrian James Croce as he reveals, is keeping his father's music alive along with his own on tour. Backed by a tight band, background singers, and stories that keep one's attention, Croce plays a two-hour set of hits and deep cuts that seems like much less time.

Opening with You Don't Mess Around with Jim had the crowd at the Scott Recital Hall singing the chorus as enthusiastically as AJ asked for. Oh yeah, he asks you to sing along, he takes requests, he communicates with his band almost telepathically when the set list changes due to requests from the crowd. All the while as the songs go on, we see clips from the early 1970s on a big screen, almost like videos created for each song. All of us old hippies were in heaven hearing the music from that time and even earlier. Croce has a soft spot for the old bluesmen and for people like Ray Charles and honors them with tales and music.

At the end of the two hours, we get the huge hits, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, I've Got a Name (my personal favorite) and Time in a Bottle, which featured old home movies of Jim, his wife and AJs mom Ingrid (still alive at 77) and a two-year-old AJ cavorting at their home in Pennsylvania. I was a really sweet moment as Jim sung the song and then AJ took over halfway through. 

Jim Croce died at 30 years old. AJ Croce is 53 years old now and keeping this classic music alive. Power to him.

If you get a chance, go see him, it's worth it.

Free Speech? Ha!

 This is MAGA right now. Defiant and forever the victims. The murder of Charlie Kirk has unleashed what MAGA has always wanted. A crackdown on free speech, a gutting of the First Amendment and total control of the country by one man child and his puppet masters at Project 2025.

We have Kirk's widow, Erika, giving a speech of not sadness and mourning and unity, but of revenge. Glaring at the camera like a possessed hateful blonde demon, she carried on about keeping Charlie's garbage alive, not because of her grief, but because like her husband, it's all a grift. She sent out fund raising emails before he was even buried, she posted videos of her dead husband's body, Christ it's all so ugly. At least her head didn't spin around and tell the left their mothers suck cocks in hell. 

Stephen Miller, now HE is truly America's Hitler, with his on brand promise to crack down on "leftist organizations". Miller, who looks like a true Nosferatu (some say Naziferatu) who hangs from his ceiling at night, glares into whatever camera is cursed to show his mug, and pontificates about forcing America's children to endure white supremacist versions of history, that "radical" leftists (anybody to his left which is everyone) are dangerous and need to be prosecuted and jailed, and various other wild eyed "theories" about white people being the true oppressed ones. Miller hates nonwhites, that's clear, and what that reason is could be he is still hurting from a rejection from a girl, probably a nonwhite one or that he truly is an evil Nazi and a half Jewish one at that.

Then there's J D Bowman, errr, Hamel, errr, Vance, the Vice President of the entire United States. Interviewing the cruel and bitter Miller, Vance, again the Vice President of the entire United States jumped right in to agree with the scowling Miller about establishing a right-wing authoritarian society where free speech is suppressed and certain political views are criminal. Vance is truly an unlikable buffoon with a gift for gab that grows weary after about 10 seconds. He's slick, a real billboard lawyer type. Vance is the sitting Vice President of the United Red States only. Much like his boss, Peter Thiel.

Kash Patel, a shit stirring podcaster like Kirk, somehow was made head of the FBI along with fellow podcaster and creepy thug Dan Bongino. His incompetence is evident. He has no fucking idea what he's doing. But what he does know is how to get into pissing matches with anyone he doesn't like. Yelling and rolling his bug eyes like a character from Bugs, Patel, performing for his audience of one, hollered at any Democrat who asked him a question. He knows why he's there. Because a low IQ President loves theater. Patel is the main character in Trump: The Musical.

Then there's the Attorney General of the entire United States, a truly sycophantic idiot named Pam Bondi. She is going to "go after" what she perceives to be "leftist" organizations. Appearing on a podcast hosted by Eva Braun Katie Miller, partner of America's Hitler Stephen Miller, Bondi proved once again she isn't Attorney General, but simply one man's lawyer and bound to carry out his retribution. Bondi took a $25K bribe to ignore her client's fraud back in Florida and thus established what she truly is. 

How did we get here? Because MAGA is a perennial victim of something. It's how they work. Use tragedy to exploit their true agenda. The fascist agenda. It's enough for me, a sober thinking person, that the murder of Kirk was not a random act. Of course, we shall never know that. They have their patsy, a young man they have branded as a gay transgender leftist with fake texts and bullshit manifestos that the dog ate I guess. Much like the Soviets, this Russia based administration is making it up as they go along. Disagree with us, you're evil, or mentally ill, or just annoying enough to be arrested.

Scary times and these gutless wonder useful idiots in Congress will do nothing. Much like the Democrats, still believing in guard rails and shit like that. 

I am truly not sure who is worse. 

The Kirk Hangover!

We've had a weekend to sober up and look at the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk from a realistic, sober and fact-based view. JK, this is America where anything makes one go on social media and say hey look at me! The Tik Tok and the deep dark internet videos of screeching right wing nuts looking for attention by calling for permission from King Trump to start killin the libtards. Yeah, some of them are over the top and are nothing but performance theatrics, but some are not. You can tell the serious ones from the middle school level audition for the tough guy role. The serious ones are kind of scary. The ones where the person speaking is not holding a gun, not screaming, not wearing any type of right-wing gear yet very calmly announces that war has been declared. Either creepily dangerous OR the best actors on the planet. 

The MAGAt snowflakes have their marching orders. Blame the transgenders, the left and whatever else they can throw against the wall hoping it sticks to dummies. We have a Governor of Utah, almost sort of unifying and eerily strange, suddenly changed course over the weekend and began blaming the left and the transgenders. It's almost like he had a little talking to by a googly eyed incompetent. The crazies all started taking like the killer being part of the "trans agenda" was as fact based as the stolen 2020 election. These people are pros. They know how to stir the shit and they also realized that ignorant people are so easy to manipulate. Much like Kirk knew.

Meanwhile the grieving widow, Erika Kirk, with a filter that made her look even more insane, took to social media to deliver a bitter, spiteful, threatening speech that did zero unifying. But then why would it? Erika Kirk is every bit the grifter her husband was. She crassly posted on Instagram for chrissakes video of her hovering over the casket of her dead husband, kissing his fingers, kissing his face all the while whispering her love. Also, all the while being professionally taped. Talk about performance art! Later on the emails began to circulate. Erika will carry on his work. Please give me money. The guy isn't even buried, and she's gotten back on the grifting horse. She's a con artist, a grifter, a charlatan just as Charlie was. It's all about the cash, baby, send me some. Say wait, wouldn't Charlie have wanted a man to take over since women are for makin white babies and stayin out of sight?

I am so sick of all of this. The right, full of gun nuts and guys who have waited their whole lives to join the modern day equivalent of the KKK and start lynchings again. The left, full of everything relates to Gaza and immaturity gloating over a guy bleeding out on a stage in front of hundreds cuz he said something they didnt like. The crazies, full of antisemites blaming the Mossad cuz Charlie was going to abandon Israel, or the whackos saying it was an inside job and the stage security killed him, or the jibrones saying it was a false flag. I'm SICK of it! Maybe some bad joke at the Emmys will outrage the MAGAt snowflakes into a new outrage. I sure hope so.

Meanwhile on Saturday night, Omaha's own Terence Bud Crawford won yet another boxing title in Las Vegas. I love to watch Crawford box. He is as methodical as an Ali, a Greg Maddux, an Ichiro, a Marv Levy, a Greg Popovich, a Brady, a Gene Tunney (google him kids). Methodical is boring to some. The people who worship legalized assault like UFC or MMA or the theatrics of WWE. They just want action. Brawling. Total chaos. Then there's the rest of us. Admiring the thought process of a man who knows his every move and showing Mike Tyson's theory that all your plans go out of the window when you get punched in the face is only 99% true. Crawford gets socked in the grill and acts like yep thats part of the plan. What Crawford has done is unprecedented. He has won multiple titles from 135 lbs to 168 lbs. Thats remarkable. Nobody is too big to take down for Bud. I say the two loudest indoor spontaneous reactions I've ever heard were the moment in Omaha when a Husker volleyball  killshot beat Texas for the national title AND the moment Bud Crawford one punch knocked out Julius Indongo  in Lincoln. Well done beating a bigger guy yet again.

Charlie Kirk!

 The above image is all anybody should concentrate on right now. A father, a mother and their young kids. They are forever scarred by the murder of their husband and father. Gunned down while speaking conservative talking points. Graphic footage is just horrifying. I am sorry I saw it. So, for now, all we should focus on is Charlie Kirk's family. The grief is real. But the grift is over. I condemn this hit. Cuz it WAS a hit.

Now the BUT.

I had my problems with Charlie Kirk. I attacked him on twitter constantly because it was so easy. He said some of the stupidest shit ever on video and audio. He pretended to hate minorities, women, gays, and anybody else on the other side of the spectrum. He famously went from Release the Epstein files to I don't care about the Epstein Files in one day because he knew the man keeping his grift alive was in those files. It WAS a grift. Charlie Kirk, much like Sean Hannity and Kaleigh McEnaney, knew great television. They didn't believe what they said until they saw their bank accounts, contracts and adoration from mutton heads grow. Then their brains suddenly shifted. Man, are these people easy to grift. And the grift became gospel. They'd convinced themselves that cash is right and to truly earn that cash they must actually buy into what they say.

Meanwhile, the pearl clutching by the right is almost laughable. Without knowing a goddamn thing about the shooter or the motive they assigned motive immediately. The left, the Democrats, the gays whatever. Hey, we do know what motivated the MAGA Minneapolis assassin of Melissa Hortman and her husband. We DO know the motive of the Tree of Life murderer. We DO know the motive behind the mass murder in Arizona that severely wounded Gabby Giffords. We DO know the motive of the El Paso Walmart mass killer, the Buffalo supermarket killer, the King Soopers mass murderer, the Pulse nightclub killer, the killer of the black churchgoers in South Carolina, the killer at the Club Q in Colorado Springs, The Burnette Chapel mass murderer, the Knoxville Unitarian Church assassin. All of it was based in hatred of people unlike themselves. Yet the right, with no clue as usual, is quick to place blame. The Divider in Chief assigned blame without knowing anything as usual. Hey Donnie, Putin bombed Poland, didya hear?

Christ, assassinations and attempted assassinations are as American as apple pie in the words of H Rap Brown. Kennedy, Malcom, Evers, Kennedy 2, MLK Jr, Wallace, Lowenstein, Reagan, Giffords, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Long, Hortman, Trump, the list is endless. For chrissakes, American history began with the killing of Alexander Hamilton by the freakin Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, perhaps you've heard of it.

So, to hell with this political bullshit outrage. I guess it all depends on whose side you're on before you actually become human and actually condemn this violence. Not a fucking word about Hortman from the Republicans, in fact, Trump said it would be a "waste of time" to reach out to the victims' families. To hell with all of it.

If you cheer this killing of Charlie Kirk, fuck you. If you cheer the killing of Melissa Hortman, fuck you too. If you cheer any murder, fuck you also.

I am sick of it. Sick of the backwards hatted tough guys on Tik Tok threatening revenge on libs. Sick of leftists cheering for Luigi Mangione. Sick of grifters and con artists pretending they care while raising money. Sick of people calling anything they don't like "genocide". 

In conclusion, I feel sorry for Kirk's family. I condemn his murder. May he rest in peace if you buy into that stuff. But remember, grifting can be dangerous, and your words sometimes have consequences. Mostly just being ostracized, but in some cases a nut wants you dead. 

And sometimes somebody puts out a hit on you. 

Football Notes!

 Moving the Husker Cincinnati game to Arrowhead in Kansas City was a brilliant move on Cincinnati's part. Yeah, they were outnumbered by 100-1 in fans but the $$$ had to be good. I mean can Nippert Stadium in Cincy handle the influx of Husker fan? Could the Lucas Oil Dome in Indianapolis handle it? Arrowhead has done it before and came through.

The drive to KC on Thursday was a fucking nightmare. Start stop start stop road construction, the 3-hour trip became 5 hours and add on another hour to park. So, if you leave at one, you get to the stadium at 7. Jesus, it was exhausting. 

The parking lot was full of red clad drinkers getting oiled up for the game. The port a potties had lines, the people tailgating took up 3 parking spots which probably led to the parking lot nightmare. 

The stadium was the loudest place I may have ever been, and I've seen Nine Inch Nails in a confined space. Sitting under the overhang in the end zone may have contributed to my ears ringing. It was hot. Being out in the open air may have been better but I was a sweaty mess.

The concessions are crazy priced. They have a captive crowd and man do they exploit it. $46 for some chicken tenders, fries and a Coke Zero. But as Max said, they were allegedly "gourmet" chicken tenders thus the price. Were they gourmet? Yeah sure. My choice was a brisket sandwich and a water (I don't drink beer at anything but baseball games cuz it's the law). It cost me $35. Yum.

The game itself was insane. The crowd was younger, drunker, and had the energy to keep it up for the entire 3 hours. I couldn't do that cuz I'm old and I'd stood for an entire Alice Cooper show the night before. I'm sure next week in Lincoln will be back to the old "Siddown I can't see" vibe. Unless the newly available beer causes some sort of conversion (It wont). 

Hey Husker fans, booing the other team's band and its dancers is low class. It's Mizzou/Colorado type shit. For thinking you're the best fan base in College Football acting like drunken buffoons isn't cool. Besides, who the hell boos Cincinnati?

Dylan Raiola is good. Emmitt Johnson is good. The defense is ok. Archie Wilson, the new punter straight from Australian Rules Football, is the MVP. His rugby punts (with either leg by the way) were the reason Nebraska won the game by pinning Cincy deep every time. Great job mate.

Raiola makes $3 million per sources. Thats $250k per game win or lose. Going to the NFL would be a pay cut. Is he worth it? We shall see.

Husker fans permeated KC on Friday. I assume most were sticking around to see the Royals that night on Nebraska night where they got a free Husker sweater or something. They were all over downtown KC. They were all over the Negro Leagues Museum which is a great place to visit. My question was do Nebraskans own any clothing other than red Husker stuff? I had on a Montreal Expos shirt which caused 4 discussions with museum visitors about the Expos. All 4 had red on.

Friday night we went to Lawrence Kansas to see the Jayhawks meet Staten Island's own Wagner U, an FCS team. They have a new, or remodeled stadium, which is modern as hell. It looks good even though our side is the same old bench seats and steep steps.

The Westboro Baptist freaks were there "protesting" outside the stadium. With their vulgar anti-gay shirts on and their judgmental bullshit I couldn't resist engaging with them. They did not engage back. I didn't swear at them but eventually told them they were THE most horrible human beings on Earth and huffed off. They don't care, they're crazy. 

The Kansas fans are decent. Of course, a game against Wagner isn't exactly knuckle biting and they sell beer. Their band is good (better than ours) and their concession prices are more in line with sanity.

A young man in a Trump hat was going up and down the steps constantly and I wondered aloud that what female would not run from this lout. A drunk young lady was taken out by EMT's down the steps where she fell into people three times until they eventually strapped her to a rolling chair. Wonder what she felt like Saturday morning.

Ubering to games seems to be the way to go. Two Uber rides in Lawrence cost less than it would have to park at the campus. Plus, it helped me avoid that climbing up Mount Everest or whatever they call that gigantic hill on campus.

The road back on Saturday was yet another Husker caravan. Some stop and start due to construction but for chrissakes, a Caseys in Mound City had a snake like line to buy pop and snacks that went from the front counter to the bathroom. Yes, it was all us Husker fans. In red.

A great weekend. Go Big Red! But I stand by my preseason prediction of 7-5 tops. 

Alice Cooper!

 Back in 1973 my third concert ever was the Billion Dollar Babies tour in Lincolns old Pershing Auditorium. Alice Cooper was the hottest act out there. It was truly a show from start to finish. Kind of a play. I saw him again in 2017 when he was 69 years old. The show was still there. An intense rock show without a pause for banter or ballads.

Alice Cooper, age 77, came to the Orpheum Theater tonight with a tight band and the show is still just as captivating as it was in 1973. I mean we have it all. The top hat and cane, the snake, Vincent Price, the stage rushers, the monsters in gas masks, the guillotine, Marie Antoinette, Cold Ethyl, the giant Frankenstein. It's a great show. 

But the real lure of the show is the band. Besides Alice, you get 3 great guitarists, Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henricksen and the always unique Nita Strauss. You get a great bassist in Chuck Garric and a drummer keeping it all together, Glenn Sobel. Does anybody really like drum solos though? It's a real showstopper, as in everybody sits down.

The crowd was well let's say, decrepit boomers and Gen Xers, but what they all had was a great time. Standing for the entire 90 minutes of hard driving rock isn't easy for us old timers (Thank you drum solo we all sat for a bit) but for this band its possible. Highlights for me were the hits, Eighteen, No More Mister Guy, Under My Wheels and Lost in America. Schools Out contained a bit of Another Brick in the Wall, and the encore featured a tribute to Ozzie with Paranoid. The sound is a bit off at the Orpheum, but the music was right on. The Alice Cooper lyrics are hard to decipher sometimes if you aren't a super fan who knows all the words but he, my friends, still has it. He moves a bit slower, but he's up there the entire 90 minutes belting out his songs, getting his head chopped off, interacting with his younger band mates, and giving the crowd what they want. a goddamn good rock show with a plot, references to old horror movies and a certain flair for the dramatic.

This is still a wonderful way to spend 90 minutes forgetting your troubles. Your ears may be ringing at the end, but you are satisfied.

As the beginning of the concert says, Welcome to the Show.

The Cornhusker Concentration Camp, Errrr, Clink!!!

Because we here in Nebraska love anything with the word "Husker" or "Cornhusker" or "Big Red" or "prison" in it the latest travesty from Homeland Security Chairman and dog murderer Kristi Noem is the placement of another cutely named concentration camp right here in CornHuskerland. McCook, Nebraska is the lucky recipient of this place to imprison farm workers, restaurant employees, construction workers and their children. Noem is so cute in her cosplay uniform of the day, in this case it's probably a whip carrying warden on a horse, that she named this monstrosity, Cornhusker Clink. Ooooooo Im so overwhelmed by something named after our extreme mediocrity of a football team that I cannot breathe. Cue the screaming Beatles fans.

Now look, McCook is barely in Nebraska, stuck down in the southwestern corner of the state where nobody ever goes. Its more Kansas or Colorado but whatever. McCook was the first town in this state to lose their hospital because of that Big Ugly Ass Bill. It closed, or will be closing, because of the uncertainty of Medicaid funding. Oh wait, rural Nebraska uses Medicaid? How socialist of them. McCook, or rather Curtis County, voted for Trump with 85% of the vote going to the orange alleged child molester so there's a temptation to say Schadenfreude Bitches but I digress. 

As a bleeding heart libtard, aka a decent person, I really don't want anybody, including the Maga cult, to get their health care cancelled by a truly despicable administration of cruelty and hate. Despite the news reports of residents of McCook poo pooing the hospital closure as not Trumps fault, again, it's a self-administered disaster caused by about 85% of the Curtis County residents. Well ok then. Sometimes people need to be saved from themselves.

Back to the Cornhusker Concentration Camp. Despite the bootlicking local support of Governor Jim "Pass the Vodka" Pillen, the human penis, Senator Pete Ricketts, and Trump simps like Representatives Mike "Medicaid Has Been Increased I Swear" Flood and Adrian "Who the Fuck Am I" Smith, a concentration camp holding their friends and neighbors isn't really all that popular anyplace in this state. The local yokel state senator from out there hasn't put her finger in the air yet so she has to do some "further study" to see what she thinks. The mayor of McCook, the county commissioners and the residents all were wandering around when the Governor showed up to announce the camp. Basically, their response was "excuse me?" 

Theres already a "prison" in McCook. A minimum-security work camp that has 186 residents who are being rehabilitated with actual jobs. The Governor, a real tool, announced those inmates will be relocated to a prison system designed to hold 4000 that currently has 6000 inmates. Pillen will do anything for his orange master, including telling the skeptics they need to get onboard the Trump Train and critics don't know what they are talking about. Pillen, who has a difficult time swearing in new National Guard members at halftime of a football game (ahhh he was hammered), is obsessed with Trump. He defeated Trumps handpicked candidate for Governor, a real grabass named Herbster, so he needs to get in line to lick Trumps ass cuz he's up for reelection in 2026. So, 186 work camp residents will be thrown back in a cell with real criminals in the overcrowded Nebraska prison system, perhaps the worst in the nation. And the new Cornhusker Concentration Camp will be built, surrounded by ICE thugs, Nebraska National Guard folks and people with pitchforks.

Good luck Nebraska. The workers, many of them undocumented, who make the farm economy go, will be sitting in a camp while crops rot in the fields, raising prices and forcing MAGAts to come up with some cockamamie excuse to blame Biden.

As long as we're at it, Governor Three Sheets, lets change the state motto from "Equality Under The Law" to "Arbeit Macht Frei". 

Resist!

Penn & Teller!

 

50 years these two have been dazzling audiences with magic tricks, Don't say illusions or Penn gets pissed. Its tricks dammit. They refuse to lie and pretend its real.

The two magicians played the Orpheum Theater last evening to what looked like a sold-out crowd. Penn was the voice; Teller was the silent magician as usual. The tricks are amazing and the participation by the audience is essential. Penn would call children onto the stage, give them shit just like he does to adults, and allow them to be the "punch line". We had Live Your Dreams, we had count the jellybeans, we had a weird pointless Entropy skit that ended up being very pointed. We had a Spanish trick that killed. All the while Penn's motormouth entertained the audience with "frustration" at kids who didn't follow instructions, adults who tried to be funny (dont) and the crowd who didn't follow instructions. It's a brilliant combination of magic and comedy.

The last act before the Entropy reveal (which is genius by the way) was inviting anybody who "believed" that Penn and Teller used "stooges" to fool the audience. onto the stage where yet another trick involving the Bible was unfolded.

The show is a bit over 90 minutes and it goes like that. You don't even notice the time its so captivating. If you've seen them In Las Vegas realize the touring show is all new stuff. The show is not as long as the Vegas show because the venue is probably not suited for some of their tricks (no magic bullet) but it is well worth the price of admission.

Brilliant!

Z Z Top!

 I first saw ZZ Top in 1973 in Omaha, pre-beards, at the old Civic Auditorium. This was so long ago that the opening act was Aerosmith, followed by Sugarloaf. ZZ Top was touring after that release of Tres Hombres, one of the great albums of the 1970s. I saw ZZ Top, also at the Civic, post beards, in 1980 or 81 and they had the longhorn onstage with a rattlesnake, in a cage thank gawd. They are what they are. Just a rock band.

Night Ranger opened to a tepid response. They have a lot of songs I didn't realize were theirs because I absolutely despise hair metal. Jack Blades seems like a decent enough guy, but man he's just not my cup of tea.

ZZ Top took the stage to a much better response. Under Pressure opened the show and had such a lousy sound mix I was worried the rest of the show would be just as bad. But like pros that have pros running the show it got fixed quickly. Billy Gibbons is joined onstage by former guitar tech Elwood Francis who got the job after the death of Dusty Hill probably because he's a brilliant bassist and he already has the beard. John Douglas played drums in place of Frank Beard who has had health problems.

The band is just straight ahead rock n roll. All the hits are there, no here's something off our latest album stuff, from Gimme All your Lovin, which the crowd recognized easily from the drum opening volley to the encore of La Grange. Theres not a song you wont recognize if you're a fan or have just been alive for the last 51 years. Remember those 80's  videos where they stood aside for a bigger story? Well now its just play the damn song, whether it be Sharp Dressed Man or Legs. 

And it still glorious.

Trumpstein!

 Did Trump engage in sex with under 18's? Of course he did, nobody with a room temp IQ doubts it. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were inseparable for years. They both enjoyed the same things, most of which is illegal, immoral and just plain sick. And now, you'd think Trump never met the guy. The Epstein list is going to be released, it's on Pam Bondi's desk awaiting review, Bondi "reviewed" it and told Trump he's in the files, then all of a sudden there was no Epstein List. Its all a fraud. made up by Obama and Biden and the Democrats. Then, because this pervert cant shut his ass up, he shades Bill Clinton and Larry Summers and a bunch of hedge fund guys, HEY he'll give you the list.

WAIT! There's a list after all? Trump is such a blabbermouth he digs a grave that 99,9% of humans would already be in, yet somehow Trump can get his fellow grifters like Charlie Kirk, Tim Pool, J D Vance, and the rest of the paid con artists profiting off Trumps debauchery to do the ol' 180 and claim they now don't care about Epstein any longer. He's got power and charisma that's for sure but it doesn't change the fact the President of the United States is a kiddie diddler, a felon, a rapist, a thief and a golf cheat.

Trumpstein is one of those guys we call a useful idiot. The Project 2025 scum will use him up, get what they want, then when it's accomplished, Trump will be shooed off to the dustbin of hedonists. Oh well we didn't know, oh my what a horror show, he needs to resign and then Peter Thiel's bitch, J D Vance, can continue the road to authoritarianism. 

Trump's latest foray into I didn't like Epstein, didn't know Epstein, or threw Epstein overboard involves Epstein stealing his employees from Mar A Lago. Purely business, eh? Tomorrow we may hear that Trumpstein was undercover to bring down a child sex trafficker and HAD to partake to keep his cover.

Meanwhile the well-known pimp and perjurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, doing 20 years for various crimes against humanity, was interviewed by Trumps personal lawyer, no not Bondi, in federal prison for some reason which I'm sure is a precursor to her saying Trump is innocent, Clinton and anyone else Trump wants to take down is guilty and she's an innocent victim of Democrats. Trump then pardons her, she stays silent and it all goes away.

What kind of moron buys any of this? I am not sure but trust me there are millions who will.

Did you know there are 4700 financial transactions in the Epstein files? Wouldn't that be interesting to see the names on that list. 47? Trump is 47. There ya go Q anon. Thats enough "evidence" for you to con more people out of money and their intelligence.

Will this whole sordid slog of degeneracy be enough to take Trump down? I have no idea. This guy is a walking scandal day after day and nothing sticks. Yeah, he has 38% approval, but he wasn't that much more popular in 2024 and America said sure why not, FASCISM RULES!

This country is truly in the Age of Stupid.

Ozzy!

 You could say making it to age 76 means Ozzy Osbourne won. Christ the guy should have died 40 years ago. Ozzy was the ultimate front man whether it was Black Sabbath or solo. He was the Prince of Fucking Darkness for gawd sakes.

Ozzy was a chubby kid from England when he was chosen to front Black Sabbath, perhaps the first heavy metal band. Those of us of a certain age and of a certain musical preference knew of Ozzy from the get-go. I mean come on now, War Pigs? Paranoid? Children of the Grave? Those were unlike anything we'd ever heard before. This was punch you in the mouth rock, there was no room onboard for wimps and we all went along for the ride. Dammit, your heroes die just like everyone else.

Ozzy didn't play a damn thing. He just shared the best musicians he could find and went out and rocked the arenas and stadiums. He acted all goofy onstage whether by design or by just being himself. And could he bring you along for the bumpy ride. Ozzy was exhausting to watch. He sweated, he dumped water over his head, he sprayed foam all over the front rows and once bit the head off a bat he thought was a toy. THAT made him a legend among disaffected youth. A pure accident.

The reality show, The Osbournes, made him a household name. He was made fun of, he looked a fool, he let Sharon use him to make cash. Some of us didn't like it, but most people thought it was hilarious. It seemed Ozzy was mush brained, used by his overbearing wife and kids to secure a lifestyle they'd grown accustomed to. He got Parkinsons, obviously from years of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and bad food. Yet he was still pushed out on tours he may not have wanted to be on. Just weeks ago he was pushed onto a stage for the last time on a throne, sang a few songs and left. Forever.

Ozzy wasn't the greatest singer. He wasn't the best frontman. But dammit he was entertaining as hell. But most of all he rocked for 76 years. We should all be so lucky.

Cheers Ozzy.

Chilling Effect Achieved!

The chilling effect is here. Corporate America is scared. They always get scared when their bottom line is threatened because Corporate America doesn't give a shit about the constitution, what they give a shit about is making money. And if they have to kowtow to a mad King, well they've proved they will. ABC settled with the Mad King over nothing. They took Trumps nuisance suit and just paid it. Chilling Effect 1. Paramount (owner of CBS) wants to merge with Skydance and in order to do so need FCC approval. They settled Trumps nuisance suit over an edit done by everyone from CBS down to the Lindell TV for $16 million. Also allegedly provided $16 million of free propaganda to advance authoritarianism. And now? They have fired Stephen Colbert, the Trump critic that holds nothing back. Oh, I guess technically he wasn't "fired" but his show was cancelled as of May 2026 when his contract is up. Trump gloats like the glorified thug he is.

Who's next? Jon Stewart? Jimmy Kimmel? Stewart's contract expires in December 2025. Kimmel's contract is up in 2026. Are they secure? Not with Donnie Dipshit in charge. ABC already folded to the bully boy in chief. Skydance will own Jon Stewart if the merger goes through. Do you think any of the cowardly media conglomerates will stand up to back channel demands to fire Kimmel or Stewart and replace them with "funnyman" Tony Hinchcliffe or "comedian" Theo Van? Will Dennis Miller make a comeback? Larry The Cable Guy hosting a late night ahow dedicated to kissing Trumps ass?

This really is a chilling effect on free speech. Conservatives have been whining for years that they are "censored" by big media. Anyone who has google knows what bullshit that is. But they thrive on being the victims. They hate watch Trump critics just so they can be offended and narc them out to the powers that be. The podcasters, the manosphere, the right wing paid Russian assets, the regime itself, and twitter, the Nazi forum some of us still fight with.

Colin Kaepernick was blacklisted for kneeling during the anthem. Jan 6ers were pardoned for trying to kill the Vice President, breaking into the Capitol and shitting in waste baskets. Breonna Taylor was murdered by a cop for sleeping. The cop who did it will serve one day in jail because Pam Bondi and the DOJ are racists. The Rosenbergs were killed for doing less spying for Russia than most of the people in this regime. Chilling effect.

Trump and his goons will continue to push the envelope further and further. The Democrats will do nothing. The courts will do nothing. The Supreme Court is nothing but a kangaroo court for Harlan Crowe and Donald Trump to do their bidding. We are in the throes of fascism right fucking now. Are you gonna do anything?

In a normal world, which hasn't existed since the Degenerate In Chief descended down the golden escalator to applause from paid actors in 2015 and called all Mexicans rapists and murderers which allowed the slime under the rocks to emerge. In a normal world, Colbert, the ratings winner, would be scooped up by someone. But in this world, are the media chickenshits willing to fight back?

Pardon me while I howl in laughter.

We are fucked.

Divide And Conquer!

 The Moron in Chief continues to throw the world his famous knuckleball regarding economics and it continually rolls to the screen. 25% tariffs on Japan, Mister Japan to be exact, which maybe or maybe not will ever go into effect, could be the stupidest thing this economic illiterate may ever do, Ya see, Japan holds most of the United States' debt in bonds and loans. Ya don't piss off the bank that holds your destiny in their hands. But when it comes to a lifelong deadbeat like Trump, what does he care? This guy has never paid a debt in his life. In fact, one of the dumber things he's ever said, and it's a long list, was he would wipe out the debt by turning it into crypto? WTF? This man child will bankrupt this nation like he did his casinos. President Deadbeat, that's what 49.8% of this stupid country voted for. 

The Big Ugly Bill passed. The Republicans danced, oh how they danced on the backs of the poor, the brown, the elderly, the very white trash that voted for them. They YMCA'd in front of a camera, while the miserable dopes who voted for Trump had no idea what had just happened to them. They gave Trump a prop gavel to pound like a toddler and they all laughed. Oh, how they laughed as President Fisher Price pounded the gavel with a stupid look on his face. The billionaires, the 1%, the Republican politicians funded by moral lepers, the oil and gas leeches, the corporate blood suckers, the masked thugs hired by ICE, the military industrial complex, they all danced. Their time has come.

Meanwhile, the very rural voters who voted 75-90% to deport nonwhites and didn't like the black lady, are about the get reality jammed up their bums. Medicaid will be destroyed, thus destroying rural health clinics, hospitals and nursing homes. Already in rural Nebraska (no we aren't all hicks here) in a county that voted for Trump 94%, a rural hospital is closing due to uncertainty about Medicaid cuts. More to come. Enjoy your bigotry. It's really fucked you now. Karma.

Alligator Alcatraz. A concentration camp in the middle of the Everglades. A tent city with cages. The "worst of the worst" undocumented will be housed there. Ya know, the field workers, restaurant cooks, the home health care workers, the construction workers, the roofers, the very people who make rural America go. The people who will be housed there, with the mosquitos and the bugs and the humidity, are urged to not escape because "Alligator Auschwitz" is surrounded by gators and pythons and other deadly creatures. And the Republicans laughed and put up signs and hoped for escapes so they could be entertained by the thought of a brown person being killed by gators. 

Meanwhile Trump has offered what is called "owner responsibility" which is fancy term for slavery. You see, Trump's goons take workers off farms or construction sites or ranches and then "sells' them back under "owner responsibility". The owner of the farm, ranch or whatever can have back his workers he paid under the table and not pay them at all now. Corporate America salivates over this concept as their already slave wages become actual slave wages. Nothing. All in the name of "shareholders" or "competitiveness" they will come up with new terms to justify their thievery and human trafficking. These are the moral lepers Trump appeals to.

We once fought a war over this. The concept that human beings could be bought and sold as unpaid slaves. The good guys won that war. 

Unfortunately, I am not sure the good guys would win this time. Theres's way too many people out there busting their ass waiting for the riches that will never come. Blaming the browns and the blacks and the gays and the chicks for fucking up their perceived Fatherland. Sorry rubes, the 1950s are not coming back. The tax cuts for the prosperous have been made permanent. And you aint getting any of it.

Resist

Saturdays Suck Lately!

 Every Saturday for the next 4 years? This nitwit of a President seems to do the stupid stuff on the weekends, whether it be a failed "perade" of out of step soldiers walking along or bombing Iran because he was jealous of the positive Fox News coverage of Bibi Netanyahu bombing Iran. The President, a man desperate to show how much of an alpha he is ( spoiler--Hés not), allegedly told Putin what he intended to do so Vlad could warn the Iranians to get their nuclear crap out of harms way, started saying "two weeks" again, and then once there was zero chance of being effective, launched the raid. As the media all bought the bullshit as they always do, practically ejaculating as they described a "bunker buster" bomb "penetrating" a mountain and then "exploding" all over a hole. Meanwhile, the Four Stooges, Moe (Trump), Larry (Rubio), Curly (Hegseth) and Shemp (Jose  D Bowman) strutted out to announce the bombing. As Moe struggled to read a teleprompter, he suddenly glitched and announced he loved God and God Bless Israel. Then the foursome turned and walked back out. Operation Midnight Hammer (ed) had already started for Hegseth, I'm sure.

The MAGAts mostly fell into line, after screaming about no war with Iran, suddenly became neo cons and little John Boltons praising their Dear Leader. If it wasn't so sad that the cultists continue to be culty, it'd be hilarious. After all, they worship fake alphas.

It's all bullshit as we all know. Iran suffered no damage, the response today from Iran, attacking Qatar (after telling them) and did no damage. It's all face saving of course. Trump has his exit ramp now, whether he will be smart enough to take it is debatable. Iran has its exit ramp, and the world will go back to normal. Kissing Netanyahu's ass on our part and Iran posturing for the crazies on theirs. Lets hope it over, for now.

Senator Mike Lee, the shitposting balloon headed Senator from Utah, is attempting to sell of public lands in the Big Beautiful Bill to create "affordable housing". Excuse me while I vomit. Lee, a despicable toady without a soul, of course has no intention to help nor sympathy for the homeless. This is all a ruse to sell public lands to Lee's donor class to build high end resorts, luxury homes with a view and airports for the rich and famous. Lee's lies are legendary; from his denial he wanted to end Social Security after being caught on video saying that exact thing to his blaming a "Marxist" for murdering two Minnesotans he would probably call that exact thing. Lee is opposed by the Democrats of course, but is also opposed by the former Trump Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke who says no no no. Zinke, who made no sense while serving in the Trump practice nightmare of the first administration, suddenly makes sense. Whether he can be bought off remains to be seen but for now, he's the voice of reason. Lee is a real asshole, perhaps even more so than Ted Cruz, and he needs to be stopped. Let's hope Zinke is the Superman of the moment. Fingers crossed.

ICE thugs continue to harass anybody not white. Last week the raided a plant in Omaha and arrested 76 people, most of whom (75%)  had zero criminal records while the rest had minor traffic charges. I would urge people to read the story right here and then tell me people busting their asses to make a living deserve this. Yeah, they used false documentation to get the jobs, fooled the feds and worked like dogs. But using false SS numbers mean the system gets money and will never pay it out. Hmmm.

I made a trip down 24th Street Saturday here in Omaha. This street is the heart of Hispanic Omaha. Food trucks, flea markets, restaurants, thrift shops, grocery stores. Just last month there was a Cinco De Mayo "parede" full of Republican politicians and Hispanic pride. No, after the ICE raid, it's a paranoid hellscape. Businesses shut down, some locked their doors and won't let anyone in they don't know because of course ICE goons have no uniforms and any gringo could be ICE. It's truly sad to see.

Finally, the Commander in Chief truthed out a nice little supportive screed on Juneteenth, stating Americans get too much time off work, hate holidays, and agree with him that there are too many holidays. Oh yeah, Mr. Burns? I don't know of anyone who doesn't welcome days off after so many work weeks. But Scrooge McDumbass firing off this text on Juneteenth was a first salvo at eliminating Juneteenth as a federal holiday. If he succeeds at that, which he will not, gee I wonder what other holiday he will attempt to repeal next. 

I have a dream, that this jerk off beta male just goes away. ASAP!

Resist every day.

Weird Weekend In America!

Protests, "perades", assassinations, manhunts, US Senators mocking political assassinations, and it ended with a declaration of war by a mad King on blue cities while ignoring the Red States and their field workers, meat plant workers and construction workers. This is America today. Within 72 hours all hell breaks loose and this is an everyday occurrence nowadays in President Chaos's world.

Early Saturday morning a kook, dressed as a cop in a mask and driving a car made to resemble a police car, walked up to a house in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, rang the doorbell and when State Rep Melissa Hortman answered he shot her, her husband and their Golden Retriever killing all three. Yes, I do consider a Golden Retriever a person. The culprit then drove to the home of State Senator John Hoffman, rang the bell, and when answered pumped nine bullets into him and 8 into his wife. The cops showed up, the killer ran back into the house and out the backdoor eluding capture. The manhunt took 36 hours until they caught Vance Boelter in a farm field 3 miles from his house. Good job to the law enforcement of Minnesota.

Who is this guy? The Magats jumped immediately, blaming the killings on the fact there was a vote on healthcare for undocumented people and one of the two voted to take it away. This "proves" a Democrat killed one of their own for that vote. The killer was an appointee to a meaningless board of businessmen by Gov Tim Walz, thus "proving" he was a Democrat. Blah blah blah. Same old shit. Jan 6ers were feds, Antifa, or FBI. Trumps attempted assassin was a "radical left lunatic". The gaslighting never stops with these people. A sitting United States Senator, Mike Lee (R-Utah), posted two tweets mocking the killings on some weird ass twitter account while at the same time condemning it on his official Senate account. The guy is not well and hasn't been for years.

Look, it's common knowledge that Vance Boelter is a right wing nutjob. Ranting about abortion and illicit sex, loved Trump and had a hit list of 70 Democrats in various states in the Midwest, all pro-choice. This isn't that hard. I am not blaming MAGAts. I'm blaming Vance Boelter who just happens to be MAGA. Much like I'm not blaming the left for Luigi Mangione. I'm blaming Luigi Mangione. People are individuals, associated with various groups and political views, and certainly may be radicalized by bad actors, but in the end, it's on the killers. Nobody is going to indict Trump for the killing, though Mike Lee might be looked at. Ha who am I kidding, like Patel's FBI would ever do that. This is one sick society we live in. And its only gonna get worse as long as the bull in the china shop is still there.

Trump's lil 79th birthday "perade", held in DC and featuring a not so happy military presence. Out of step marching (many vets say it was on purpose), squeaky tanks, a guy holding a drone, guys sweating to death in Revolutionary War uniforms, more squeaky tanks, and yawning politicians. The crowd was small, empty stands, empty fields and less than enthusiastic troops. Happy Birthday Donnie. $65 million for an ego stroke. But anyway, congrats on 250 years to the United States Army, which my old man served in fighting Nazis 1941-1946. As far as 79th birthdays go, congrats Donnie, it's amazing the Big Macs haven't done a number on you yet.

No Kings protests took place in all 50 states. They were violence free other than MAGAts showing up at a couple of protests with guns and causing trouble. A man was killed in SLC by a volunteer security person firing madly at a guy with a rifle/ So much for volunteer security. The protest here in Omaha took place across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This was done in deference to the College World Series, taking place in Omaha. We were there. It was too hot for human existence and being age challenged, we left after 90 minutes or so. I despise Trump, but I won't let the disdain kill me.

In Los Angeles, the protests were peaceful, confined to a two-block radius, and then came the sheriffs on horses playing Wyatt Earp and beating on people, shooting tear gas and causing trouble. Why is it ALWAYS the county sheriffs starting the trouble? They did it here in 2020 by charging people sitting down in the street and beating them up and they did it in LA over the weekend. Sheriffs. Man, why not try and become real cops instead of bitter bullies with power? There is open warfare here in Omaha as the Omaha Police Department has warned the Douglas County Sheriff's Department to stay in their own lane. Seems like our Sheriff, a short little man always dressed in tactical gear, can't mind his own business. They came into Omaha and killed a kid, they participated in the ICE raids, and they are always willing to stick their nose in business they don't belong. The OPD has had enough.

Who hasn't had enough? Trump got his "perade", the protests were massive, and Trump is pissed. So, before even condemning the Minnesota murders, he sent a lengthy insane Truth Social post where he declared war on Blue America. Trump and his ICE thugs will invade LA, Chicago, New York and any other blue city he feels like invading. He wants violence, he wants death, he wants to invoke the insurrection act so he can unleash the American military on its citizens. Trump is a despicable 79-year-old despot out for revenge because he's never been accepted into celebrity society he so longs for. If we let him get away with it, we shall be sorry.

Resist. Never Stop. Our country is at stake.

Brian Wilson And Sly Stone!

The deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson remind us boomers of our own mortality. Chrissakes, if the legends die that means we all are gonna die too. It's a fact that we cannot get away from. Time kills us all. But we still have Sly and Brian's music and it will always make that inevitable demise much less painful.

The Beach Boys. As a literal child of the 60's, how can one not be familiar with the sounds of California. I came of musical awareness not because of the Beach Boys but because of the Beatles and the Monkees and the Doors. The Doors were California to me. The Beach Boys were too slick. Too appealing to girls for me. A Beach Boys concert in the mid 70's at the old Civic Auditorium in Omaha, minus Brian Wilson, made me really a non-fan. The screeching girls, the adoration of friends of mine, I didn't get it. We ended up sitting down on the floor and wished it was over. I secretly had taped the concert for another person who couldnt attend, and when I gave them the cassette they acted like they had obtained the Holy Grail. I'm sure the quality was awful but whatever floats your surfboard I guess. Years and years later, I saw a sort of version of the Beach Boys with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston and it wasnt that bad. I even kind of liked it. My older age had caught up with me. Now I understand the genius of Brian Wilson. Listening to the albums I had previously rejected as tripe, I got a whole new perspective, one of a middle-aged man, not of a rebellious teen into the anti-establishment rock of the Doors and the Airplane. Brian had his problems. But don't we all? We aren't in the public limelight, thus we don't get lied about or ridiculed for our weirdo behavior. In fact, a sandbox in my house sounds kind of intriguing now. RIP Brian Wilson.

Sly Stone. Sly and The Family Stone. Never heard of them. And then I bought the Woodstock album. I bought it for Hendrix, for the Who, for CSNY and for the Airplane. What I got was not only them, but an introduction to the band that blew the place up at 3:30 AM. Sly and the Family Stone did Dance to the Music, I want to Take You Higher and Music Lover. Good lord. Who the hell are these guys? And then I heard "All the Squares go home" and fell in love with Cynthia Robinson (RIP Cynthia). What the hell? It was band of blacks and whites and was pure joy. Much like Santana, the diversity appealed to me. But Sly Stone. With his huge afro and wide smile, who could not love this guy? I wore that Woodstock album out listening to those Sly and the Family Stone songs. Wow, the hits after were so come together y'all who couldn't love it? Everyday People, Thank You, Family Affair, Hot Fun in the Summertime. This was the black Beach Boys. Live life, hate nobody, have fun. Then came the drugs, the crazy wedding at Madison Square Garden, the mohawk, the disappearance. Sly Stone and Brian Wilson were kindred spirits. Both did their own thing, were self-destructive and had trouble living among us peasants.

And now they are both gone. I hope they find happiness wherever they are. Genius is a bitch.

MJ The Musical!

 Before MJ The Musical begins, people wander around on stage. It's kind of confusing at first as we see people walking into what seems to be a rehearsal studio. We get a man keeping time by shouting 5 minutes to Michael, 3 minutes to Michael, 1 minute to Michael as the performers stretch and dance and do yoga. Then in comes Michael, to great applause. We then get Beat It, complete with the Eddie Van Halen solo. The musical then begins to explain the story of the Jacksons, The Jackson 5 and Michael himself.

MJ is preparing for the 1992 Dangerous Tour. His perfectionism and quirky wants and needs are driving people crazy. His manager fights him on safety issues; his accountant fights him on money issues. It's a disaster in the making. An MTV journalist shows up to interview Michael and thinks she's going to break through. But he has conditions. Only musical questions. This is the catalyst for the story.

We go back in time to Michael with the Jackson 5, the domineering father Joseph Jackson, the brothers and the abuse as the Jacksons try and please Dad to no avail. We get the Apollo; the Ed Sullivan show and the gigs in places long in the past. Hit after hit put the pressure on Michael as the front man.

Michael grows up, physically at least, and goes out on his own. Meanwhile, we go back and forth in time from the troubled 1992 MJ to the Thriller MJ. Will the tour even happen? Those are all questions answered at the end of the musical. We get references to Bubbles, the hyperbaric chamber, the pill popping, and even a short reference to the "allegations". But since MJ the Musical is approved by the Jackson Family, that's as far as it goes. Well ok, but it's all about the music. As Michael tells Rachel the MTV interviewer, "listen to my music and it will answer any questions you have".

Now the performances. Jordan Markus is adult MJ, speaking in a constant whisper and nailing the moves and the voice. He is phenomenal. Devin Bowles plays Joe Jackson AND Rob the tour manager. He moves from one character to the next in the blink of an eye. He is a brutal money hungry grifter one instant and the caring father figure of Rob within seconds. He's great also. The young Michael and teenaged Michael, played by Quentin Blanton Jr and Erik Hamilton respectively. Those kids have great voices and great presence. Anastasia Talley plays Katherine Jackson, their mother, with a sense of keeping the family together to matter what. She gets a solo song towards the end that had the audience cheering as it well should. Her voice is perhaps the best in show. Rachel the journalist is played by Cecilia Petrush, and she is basically the narrator. She doesn't sing much but sets the tone for the story's back and forth timeline. She's kind of irrelevant to the story to be honest. I found her cynical cameraman, played by Anthony Garcia, to be the comic relief and it was apparent he's a stage veteran.

The background dancers and singers do their job with flair and great dedication. It's a good cast.

So now what about MJ the Musical as a 2 1/2-hour experience. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Sure. Is it too long? Yes. Was the music great? Yes. Was the band superb? Yes. So, what's not to like?

No idea. It just struck me as cold. Like the Tina Turner musical, it was musically brilliant, but the story didn't grab me. I guess it's just a matter of taste. If you want a Vegasy impersonation and legends show you'll love this. If you prefer a story, warts and all, maybe it just doesn't get there for you. That's me. It fell just short.

However, we do get the 3 things MJ started. We get the robotic moves of Soul Train, the moonwalk of Billy Jean on the Motown at 20 special, and finally the lean of Smooth Criminal (my favorite MJ song).

Stick round after the curtain call as you get a real jam session where all the minor characters get to show their chops. 

The sound sucked as usual at the Orpheum, perhaps the whispery voice of MJ contributed to that but the music was grand. The crowd was kind of lukewarm, perhaps due to the fact MJ's core audience is now over 60 and not quite as energetic as the kids on stage.

Should you see it? Yes, of course. It's fun for us old folks to remember our youth. 

The "Invasion"!!

Show me anything in this now deleted tweet that is untrue. Stephen Miller is a bitter punk, once rejected by a Hispanic high schooler and now the chief architect of the Final Solution. At this point it's round em up and deport them to some other shithole prison where nobody knows what happens to them. Ya know, like Auschwitz. Sooner more than later, if they get away with this, we shall see them round up American citizens and who knows what will happen to them.

But ABC, led by the coward Bob Iger, got a load of that Terry Moran tweet and made him delete it before suspending him for telling the truth about a guy nobody fucking voted for. ABC, not known for courage, refuses to stand up for its reporters, anchors and show staff. They recently poured $15 million into Trumps pockets because George Stephanopoulos hurt Trumps feewings. CBS is close to paying off the Felon for doing what all networks do, editing a boring part of an interview, I hope they stand their ground, but fascism needs corporations to cooperate, and man are they ever cooperating with this thuggish administration.

What's going in Los Angeles is nothing more than government sanctioned violence. Egged on by Trump, his plastic Barbie Noem, his scummy AG and his drunken Defense Secretary, the violence was started as it usually is. By nerds who were bullied in high school now with power. Cops and Guardsmen and Sheriff's Deputies and State Patrols and perhaps US Marines are dying to get revenge on those bullies who probably grew up and aren't like that any longer. Which you can't say about the goons who are sketchy and embraced by ICE. 

An American version of Bloody Sunday is upon us. It's inevitable in this current mood of half the country appalled by these ICE hooligans and the other half who want F15s to strafe their fellow Americans. When it happens, and the Trumpers all come in their shorts, it will finish us as a country. We will have turned the corner from the world's finest democracy to an authoritarian shithole. Once you massacre a number of Americans, it becomes easier to do it again and again. Because journalism is fucking dead. Unable and unwilling to hold these Trump ruffians accountable, news corps are joining the team. Don't offend these guys because we may have lost profits and ever since 1980, journalism is just another money-making division of the American Conglomerate.

LA is not an "invasion" of migrants and illegals. It's an invasion by government bullies looking to stay in power and appease a racist base.

Just because an incel like Miller can't make some girl like him, we all have to suffer. Even Millers wife, taking one for the fascist team, can't stand him any longer and is so beaten down, thinks a choad like Elon Musk is an attractive alternative. It's an invasion all right but not the one Miller and Trump think it is. 

They are the invaders of every decent Americans minds.

Resist 

PS- Ice vermin invaded Omaha today by raiding 3 meat packing plants. The low hanging fruit these cowards go for to please Miller's 3000 a day quota is pathetic. Word is employers were cooperating to avoid government blackmail. And yes, there were protestors. Hey folks, it's here in "Real America". We dont take kindly to invaders. Or do we?

California Trends!

 It's still exhausting. Donald Trump gets worse and worse every day. Once you realize that bottom will never be reached, it gets even more exhausting.

Over the weekend, we had the American Gestapo (ICE) decide to go to a Home Depot in Paramount, California to meet the Cosplay Barbie (Noem) quotas in rounding up all those MS13 gangsters (day laborers) that hang out in the parking lot to maybe pick up a roofing job on top of their drug dealing and sex trafficking profits. So, they've run out of "criminals" to roust. Since the human migraine (Tom Homan) took over as border czar (head of the American Stasi) this has never been about rounding up criminals. They are all gone, sent home under Biden and Trump in his first month. When the American KGB would round up 100 Hispanic men, 20% would have records deemed deportable while the remaining 80% were traffic violators or had no record at all. This was the sign either fellas you're out of criminals or fellas you suck at investigating and are so lazy you are picking the low hanging fruit. The low hanging fruit are kitchen workers, crop pickers, farm hands and construction workers. These are people who are doing shit jobs to send money home or feed their families. To the American SAVAK, they are just quota numbers. 

Noem and Homan are the bar floozy desperately trying to stay young and the loudmouth at the end of the bar spouting off his Archie Bunker bullshit without the comedy, respectively. They set quotas that can only be met with low hanging fruit. Thus, the protests in California. 

People are sick of this shit. Well, most people, there's always the Stephen Millers of the world who got rejected by a young woman of Hispanic origin in high school and decided to hate everybody not white. Those people are a lost cause bent of burning down the world. It's called MAGA.

But most people have had enough. Most people now know of a person being roughed up and rousted by a thumb breaking organization like ICE. We've seen it on the news, on social media or by word of mouth. Here, in Omaha, ICE agents, masked as usual, followed a young man to a local restaurant where he worked. He saw them and ran into his place of employment. ICE followed him into the diner, all geared up in their vests, guns and masks and took him down in the restaurant as people ate. One patron, a real humanitarian I'm sure, kneeled on the guy's legs as ICE did their usual "stop resisting" bullshit while cuffing the guy. The look on that kids face as he was pulled up was horrifying. He had no idea what was happening, had a speech impediment, spoke little English and was scared to death. Well good you say, he's an illegal and that's what I voted for. Oh yeah, he was the wrong guy but as the American Secret Police scream out "stop resisting" it warrants a bogus resisting arrest charge, so they are never wrong. It's fascism 101.

California starts trends. Resisting a fascist state is always a noble cause. Punching Nazis is always a noble cause. California has started a noble cause. As this military takeover of blue cities spreads, and it will, resistance is mandatory for any freedom loving person. Living here in "real America" where change is looked upon as a festering sore, this trend is not that far away. Progress always wins, and it may be a long bloody war, but it wins.

Resist!